Why the Bible is Repulsive
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It is easy to prove that the Bible is a repulsive book. Perhaps the most repulsive book ever concocted by man. Most people don't read it; they only hear certain passages read out at weddings or funerals. But Christians carry around with them a truly repulsive book.
Example 1.
The Sabbath
Exodus 20: 8-9 says "Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. For 6 days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall do no work...."
That seems straightforward enough. But look around - most shops in the UK (and America) are open on Sundays. Most people, including Christians, happily use those shops and services. So most people are "guilty" of breaking the Sabbath. So here's a clear-cut situation, God has told us not to work, and yet we work. What shall we do with everyone who breaks the fourth commandment?
Now here's the repulsive bit. The Bible tells us exactly what to do with everyone who breaks this commandment. In Exodus - the same book with the 10 commandments in it - chapter 31, we read:
"Whoever does any work on the Sabbath must be put to death."
The Bible demands the death penalty for tens of millions - probably billions of people around the world. Should we line all these people up and shoot them - should we put them in giant gas chambers? This is repulsive - the Bible is repulsive.
We can see this law in practice in Numbers 15:32-35: "While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made plain what should be done to him. And the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
Imagine this happening to your grandfather! He has been told it is against the law to pick up sticks on a particular day. He says (just as you would) "Nonsense!" He was a freethinker. But he was stoned to death.
Christians will try not to see this repulsiveness. They will say: "...oh but the New Testament does away with all that... Jesus was NICE."
First of all, the New Testament says that all scripture (ie the Old Testament) is God-breathed. (2 Tim 3:16) The Old Testament is apparently written by the same unchanging God as the New. Jesus said he came to fulfil every jot and tittle of the law. He preaches the same intolerance, in his talk about Hellfire, throwing away unbelievers like branches onto the fire, hating your family, calling gentiles 'dogs' (Mtt 15:22-26) etc.
Many verses claim that the Old Testament is god's word and that is valid forever:
Isaiah 40:8 "the Word of our God will stand forever"
Psalms 19:7 "the law of the Lord is perfect"
Psalms 89:34 - "My covenant will I not profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."
Hebrews 6:17 "...the unchangeableness of his purpose..."
So Christians can't have it both ways. They claim their scriptures are written by an invisible mythical being they call "god". They think it is perfect. But it is clearly NOT perfect. It is repulsive.
Example 2
Kill unbelievers
The Bible wants us to kill most of our country, indeed most people in the world.
The first commandment says: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me".
What are we supposed to do with everyone who doesn't believe in God? Christians are always asking the rest of us to be tolerant of their beliefs. How does their holy book deal with unbelievers? It says kill them.
Deuteronomy 17:2-7 - "Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die".
(Question: have you ever seen anyone stoned to death? Can you imagine how horrible that is? Have you ever given this one moment's thought? Here is an eye-witness account of a religious stoning, which took place in 2007)
Deuteronomy 13:13-19 says that if a city doesn't believe in god: "You shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, destroying it utterly, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword."
According to god himself, we must kill everyone who does not believe in him. These are the words of a paranoid, insecure, evil dictator. If you are a thoughtful, intelligent person, you are starting to realise something:- the law of the lord is not perfect - it is repulsive.
Example 3
Kill disobedient children
"All who curse their mother or father must be put to death". Leviticus 20:9
God talking in Deut 21:18-21 "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they chastise him, will not give heed to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones".
Can you imagine the oppressive regime that would make parents do this to their own child? Only a dogmatic, totalitarian dictatorship could achieve such horrific mind-control.
It doesn't matter when these words were spoken. It doesn't matter what the culture of the time was like. The law of an unchanging, loving, wise god would not instruct us to murder teenagers for challenging their parents' authority. I have heard Christians defend all the horror of the Old Testament by saying that somehow god was "bringing the Jews out from the surrounding cultures, educating them gradually." That is an ignorant argument, because it ignores the barbarous, arbitrary nature of these laws. There was no need for a law like this. There is no way these examples constitute "education". They are sick and repulsive.
Example 4
Kill people who commit adultery
Lev 20:10 "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."
Maybe you agree with me that adultery is usually a bad thing - because it often causes unhappiness. But no right-thinking person would kill someone simply for having sex with someone that a religion declares they shouldn't have sex with. This is horrific and oppressive. It is repulsive. Christians will shake their head when they see the horror of Islamic honour-killings - families taking the lives of their own children because they committed adultery or loved an unbeliever. The Bible is just as bad. Face up to this.
Example 5
Kill male homosexuals (the Bible-writers were so out of touch with women, they couldn't even contemplate lesbianism - it is not mentioned.)
"If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them."
Question: why are religious people so obsessed with what other people do in their private rooms? Why would an omnipotent being care so much about where people put their penis? This is repressive - it has caused untold suffering and sadness and harm to homosexuals through the ages. It is repulsive. According to the Bible, we need to kill tens of millions of innocent people. The idea that people would walk around carrying a book that demands the murder of so many fellow-citizens should be disturbing and scandalous in the extreme. Yet it goes unchallenged because it is engrained in our culture.
Example 6
Jesus' Iron Age cure for bad behaviour
Jesus talking in Matthew 18:9-9: "And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire."
An omnipotent, all-knowing god would simply not talk like this. Cutting off parts of your body accomplishes nothing. If you are having a problem with unproductive behaviours, go and see a counsellor or therapist. Maiming yourself will not help. Self-amputation is absurd and repulsive. People in history have actually followed this command literally. Imagine the suffering this has caused!
These verses are horrible on another level too: the doctrine of eternal hell is horrific and repulsive - it is one of the most horrible doctrines ever invented by the minds of men. It has only ever been used to control, to manipulate and to scare little children into submission. And it comes not from Judaism itself but from the Zoroastrian religion.
Example 7
The Bible is a thoroughly sexist book (see Rape)
"The women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church."
1 Cor 14
"Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent." I Tim 2
We can find dozens of verses that are just as sexist throughout the Bible; the Bible's sexism is both ridiculous and repulsive.
Example 8
The Bible fully supports slavery (See Slavery)
In fact the Bible has been used in many cases, including the USA, as an authoritative justification for slavery. Today we hear a lot about Wilberforce, and of course he accomplished great things. But many voices from all quarters (religious and non-religious) spoke against slavery in the 19th Century. The human race had moved on from Iron Age morality by then. But no thanks to the Bible!
Leviticus 25:44-46 "As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them for life."
Exodus 21:20-21 "When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod, and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be punished; for the slave is his property."
And from the New Testament,
Titus 2:9 "Bid slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to be refractory, nor to pilfer, but to show entire and true fidelity".
The Bible is entirely clear on this. Buying and selling of slaves is fine. Beating slaves is fine. Slaves are to show entire and true fidelity. It is not good enough to say that god also commanded "love". Any god who wanted to instruct us should have given us three precious words: "Slavery is Wrong." or "Don't have slaves". If god is unchanging, why would he write such things at any time in history? Christians: I'm asking you to face up to the fact that your holy book from the Bronze and Iron Age Middle East - IS REPULSIVE.
Example 9
The Bible is riddled with this repulsiveness!
Isaiah 13:16 "Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished."
Hosea 13:16 "They shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open."
Numbers 31:17-18 "Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
The words above were spoken by Moses - supposedly god's mouthpiece. It is a command to murder and rape.
Ezekiel 5:10 (God talking) "Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds."
Have you ever read anything so horrible anywhere, as the verse above?
Conclusion
You've probably got the picture by now. There are hundreds of verses like these all through the Bible. You just need to remove the cultural indoctrination you have received while you were growing up, the belief that Christianity is good, that the Bible is good. Examine it with objective vision. The Bible is truly repulsive, and the fact that you only hear the nicer bits from the pulpit is mere deceit on the part of church leaders. After all, why would they expose Christians to the full horror of the Bible, when their jobs and livelihoods depend on their congregation's money?
Geoff Mather 2007 - using extracts from www.godisimaginary.com
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